The Giant Beastcast: Episode 154

Ahh yeah.

I, for one, am happy to have another hot episode of the greatest podcast in the world to listen to while I cook my spaghetti.

Battletech is a better xcom.

God of War talk ends at 18:00. Didn't listen to all of it, not sure if there is any spoiler-ish stuff!

Also get TANG'd

Nothing beats ass.

The greatest, most high quality bestest podcast ever envisioned and produced? Don't mind if I do!

oh that shift was rough. i am very happy it's friday and this is here when i get home.

also, I'm maybe two story missions from the end of God of War, which creeped up on me pretty fast so I didn't get much of an exploration and sidequest filled experience...so now I'm conflicted wether I should A: beat the game, pick a quest and go, or two, do some sidequests and fill out the remainder of the story at this awkward juncture with the quests I missed. Or, make a new save, I DUNNO!

I am really enjoying it and could see myself playing it again, so maybe I should just beat it, if I feel like going nuts with the sidequests, I should do that on a harder difficulty. That said I wonder if maybe one thing open world games should do is emphasize using side quests as a means to get through the story more. Having all that aux. content is great for having a filled out world with variety and stuff to do after the game, but if they don't really steer you at it directly it's easy to wind up at the end without really getting the full scope of the world. It's interesting to me and wonder if that might have helped the pacing of God of War be even better, at least for players like me who expected those quests to be kind of necessary at some point and held off..

What in the world is going on with Alex in that Oculus Go segment? Dude sounds legit unhinged.

#sleepfarts

@doctorpayne:

okay but I feel it's kinda justified? I mean Alex is trying to save Dan 200 bucks.

Would love to hear more about Battletech from the GB crew and all we get is "Battletech looks boring, I haven't played it."

Drew or Austin would have made a fun/informative series out of it.

@knoxt: From my personal experience, I kept up with the side content for about half to lets say three quarters of the way through, and then finally just wanted to see how the story plays out and stuck to the main quest. So playing on normal, I didn't really have any special equipment and the final parts of that game play out in such a way that it's not really an issue. That said, I guess this may vary from person to person, but I went back to do some of the side stuff and honestly didn't really feel that much incentive to do it since I already finished the game. I got the "best" armor set in the game from the special dungeon and defeated a few valkyries, but somehow fighting them for the sake of fighting them felt like a waste of time.

The one thing I can recommend is doing the dwarves side stuff because they take you to some cool locations with some neat puzzles. Everything else like the arena combat or the maze, ehhh, I dunno if you get that much of a kick out of the combat then go for it. Somehow I had basically maxed out the skill trees nearly halfway through the game so fighting stayed pretty much the same for me apart from arbitrary numbers going up, so by the end of the game I had my fill of fighting these doods - especially since the elves never stop being extremely annoying to fight.

My advice is to do as much of the side stuff as you feel like doing and then when you feel like you've really had your fill of the world, go and finish the main story. Especially since in the process of doing side activities you'll get to hear a lot more lore from your head friend that helps to fill out some gaps in the world building and make you appreciate the rest of the game a little more.

Also I'm not sure why Vinny is so nervous about spoilers, since I really don't think there is THAT much to spoil apart from the stuff that is revealed to you at the very last bit of the game.

it's called "Going Overboard" and no one should ever fucking watch it

Alfheim is easily the best non Midgard realm. What the fuck?

@humanity said:

The definition of spoilers can change from person to person. It can mean story beats and character moments (which is the general definition) or it can mean mechanics you encounter and locations you visit. I might call some of the stuff mentioned on this week's Bombcast and even a tad bit of the stuff mentioned here a bit too spoiler-y for my tastes, but I'm the one choosing to listen to them so that's on me for "taking the risk" and listening to it sight unseen. Again, it comes down to personal preference.

I'm sure they get a lot of shit for saying stuff about new games, being a gaming podcast that often talks about them in great detail as they come out. Of course, they shouldn't worry so much about it because they are never going to please everyone. I'd say that most people are pretty happy with the level of discussion they tend to go with for new games. And the more intense people who don't want to know anything about a game before playing it shouldn't be engaging with any content that talks about it if they haven't had their time with it, so that's not really on either GB team to worry about.

Isn't that Scott from CNET on the thumbnail?

Some day someone on these podcasts will get Yggdrasil right, some day!

@avioto: I felt the same way about Divinity Original Sin 2. They did do a quick look eventually but a lot of what they said was incorrect. Sadly it seems like tactical games like these won't be in the Giant Bomb wheelhouse for awhile.

@doctorpayne: Dan. Ryckert.

@wemibelle: Far be it from me to tell anyone else what is a spoiler and what isn't, but they basically described basic mechanics of the game as far as I'm concerned. It's like if in a purely hypothetical game someone said you get a double jump later on, and it's like well, I encountered walls that are twice as high as my jump is so that makes sense.

But I totally get that different people have different thresholds, which is why I really like when they do the spoilercasts. I've long thought that the spoilercast format should replace written reviews overall. Of course in the case of a "reviewcast" they would abstain from mentioning story spoilers, but two or three people sitting down and discussing what they liked and didn't like in a game after completing it seems way more informative and interesting than the current written format.

So this might be a weird question, but is it normal in the US for everyone to have a middle name? The impression listening to podcasts and watching various media is that it`s excepted that people have a middle name which is just not a thing here in Norway, so it`s something I have been wondering about.

I saw this before listening and expect Alex to go on some rant on Oculus Go, but Dan was acting sort of silly. Dan is skeptical of the device and he has access to try one. So it seems silly to just buy it before at least trying it out.

Based on the things Dan said it will probably be useful for him. The media viewing ability of the device is great and is much more comfortable and convenient than a GearVR. There are some neat games, but I haven't put a ton of time in on those yet. I am actually going on a flight in a few weeks, but I don't know if I will actually wear it though.

@odinsmana: I can only speak from the perspective of an American with Italian and Irish heritage. Among Irish and Italian-Americans, it's highly common. The origin of that may be due both countries' Catholic roots, where you get a "confirmation" name, after said Confirmation, one of the sacraments of Catholicism.

Omg Dan at the end had me dying at the office trying so hard not to laugh. Love it.

Did anyone register bifrostpunk.com yet.

(shh) Sleep farts

Man, "the story was somewhat coherent by the end" is the best backhanded compliment I have heard in a long time. I laughed out loud at that.

That`s interesting. Thanks for the answer!

Abby laughing at the farts sustains me.

Dan is a fart.

@odinsmana: Yes, most people have them. Though it's not really an expectation, if you didn't have one most people wouldn't find it weird.

You do know they've spent more than 6 months playing X-Com, right? Also Into the Breach dominated discussion on both coasts when it came out.

Thick Broth

There's another eBay coupon today so Dan can get his Oculus Go 15% off.

Anxiety As An Allygator

@matthewgm: I love both of those games, but they don't have anywhere near the depth Battletech/Divinity have.

And I never said we never get similar content, I'm just saying I hope Abby finds her own niche someday and can appreciate the niche others are into and doesn't crap over it.

Bah, Battletech not getting the love it deserves. I think it just takes too much time that Vinny doesn't have. Jeff miiiiiight like it?

BIFROST punk

PLEASE NO MORE GOD OF WAR TALK :(

But seriously, if this isn't your game of the year pick very quickly then you guys are all fucking crazy.

@two_socks: Thank you for telling us when they stop talking about GoW. I get they love the game, but I don't know what else they can possibly say about it anymore.

@avioto: if it helps asutin is over at waypoint and he and another guy there had Alot to say about it to the point they did a podcast dedicated to it ( they also read the review the other guy gave to it which is about 20 mins long if you rather skip that altho its a good review imo) , plus they've been doing streams of it that are on waypoints youtube. ( i used to like austin's stuff when he was just on streamfriends ages ago)

Man, go visit the Bombcast comments from last week for some info about that. A rather harmless comment by Jason was made out to be the spoiler of the century.

Quick question about God of War. There's a chance the question is a spoiler to some so I'll tag it.

I'd like to get an idea if I should explore more, I get apprehensive when I feel like I'm getting closer to the end of the game.

I'm kind of bummed that Red Dead Redemption 2 takes place at the turn of the century, I had hoped it would have taken place somewhere closer to the US civil war.

@sethmode: different strokes for different folks I guess! I’m now super eager to hear a full sppilercast.

yeah, that was a shame. It's unfortunate that the hosts have to tip-toe while somehow trying to give a review. Makes it difficult to give me as a listener an accurate impression about their favourite or not-so-favourite bits.

@merxworx01: You visit three realms (4 if you include Midgard) through the story and two you can unlock by collecting language ciphers.